Read Online Starshine: Aurora Rising Book One by G. S. Jennsen - Free Book Online Page A

put her in one of the interview rooms. I, um, gave her a juice. And some popcorn.”
She fell in beside him. “And the young man?”
“Uh, he was of age and no laws had been broken, so we weren’t able to detain him.” He stopped in front of a doorway and glanced at her, then hastily opened the door and stepped back.
Alexis tossed a kernel of popcorn in the air and caught it in her mouth. Her feet were clad in braided flip-flops and kicked up on the desk, legs crossed at the ankle. She was all elbows and knees, half a child and half a woman. Her hair was bound in long pigtails draped over her shoulders and down her chest—strange, they somehow made her look older, not younger. Perhaps it was the sharp, spirited fire in her eyes. David’s eyes.
“Mom. Here to throw me in the brig?”
“I am here to take you home .”
Alexis gave a melodramatic sigh, rolled her eyes in exaggerated annoyance and pulled her feet off the desk. “Fine, whatever.”
She turned to the lieutenant. “Thank you for taking care of my daughter, Lieutenant. I do apologize for any inconvenience she may have caused you.”
“She was no trouble, ma’am.” He jumped when Alexis tossed the bag of popcorn to him as she passed.
“Thanks for the snack, mes’ye.”
Miriam didn’t say a word until they reached the ship. She set the autopilot then shifted in the seat. “ What were you thinking? You are fourteen years old and had no business flying off-planet without supervision.”
“It’s not like it was far off-planet….” Her hand jerked toward the viewport dominated by Earth’s profile.
“How did you access the ship? The security should have prevented you from flying it.”
Alexis snorted. “Please. I hacked full access to it weeks ago. It actually recognizes me as its primary owner now, you know.”
“Not for long it doesn’t. You will—”
“Did you even know I was gone until they called you? You didn’t , did you? You spent another night at the office, doing whatever the hell it is you do there.”
She felt her jaw tighten, but made certain her voice remained even. “I trusted you were mature enough so I didn’t need to check on you constantly, trusted you would respect your curfew and not, for instance, steal the family ship and run off with a boy four years older than you.”
“Nick? He’s a tupïtsa, and entirely too easy to impress. I was bored with him before we got to the station.”
“That is not the point. The point is I was mistaken. You aren’t worthy of my trust.”
“Bullshit. The point is—”
“Do not speak to me in—”
“The point is you will do everything in your power not to have to spend time with me. I’m nothing but a nuisance in the way of your damn career—but hey, it’s fine. Say the word and I’ll be out of your hair forever. I’ve got things to do anyway.”
She opened her mouth to retort…then closed it.
How could she tell her daughter it was a knife in the heart every single time she looked at her? That she saw David in the light in her eyes, the way she walked, her voice, her smile and even her frown? That she could hardly bear to be in the house where he was a ghost in every shadow and a whisper in every corner, yet couldn’t bear to let it go for the same reason? That she sought refuge in work because it was the only place where she could pretend there wasn’t a hole in the world? Where she could at least try to make sure he didn’t die in vain?
She couldn’t, of course.
“Don’t be absurd. You are my daughter, and I care about you. But with the implementation of the armistice there’s a tremendous amount of work to do. A lot of changes are on the way. Someone has to ensure matters are handled properly.”
“Chto za khuynya! I don’t understand why you agreed to the armistice in the first place. We should have blown Seneca into space dust.”
“Alexis, please mind your mouth. Cursing in Russian is still cursing.”
“I certainly hope so. And my name is Alex.”
She gritted